what is a solar system?

Answer 1

It has similarity to the structure of the atoms which have a nucleus and electron orbiting the Nucleus;except in the solar system intead of electron orbital it has planets.
So we can say the solar systems in the Universe and who know how many there are , that it they can be called the Big atoms of space.

Answer 2

A solar system is probably the most common structure in the universe.
Thousands are formed when a massive star explodes as a super nova.
It consists of a star orbited by any number of satellites or planets.

Answer 3

A solar system is made up of a star with one or more objects orbiting around it. It is possible for some solar systems to consist of two stars dancing with each other - Binary Star.

Answer 4

The Sun (or any star) and its surrounding planets, natural satellites, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets that are bound and controlled by its gravity.

Our Sun, a medium sized, main sequence star, is by far the most massive part of our Solar System, containing almost 99.9% of the system's total mass. The principal members of our Solar System are the nine (or eight since Pluto's re-definition) major planets.

Have fun!

Answer 5

A solar system would be solid debris orbiting a star with at least one component sufficiently massive to collapse into a ball.

Answer 6

A Solar System...Hmmm...Well from our small world we have gazed upon the cosmic ocean for thousands of years. Ancient astronomers observed points of light that appeared to move among the stars. They called these objects planets, meaning wanderers, and named them after Roman deities - Jupiter, king of the gods; Mars, the god of war; Mercury, messenger of the gods; Venus, the god of love and beauty, and Saturn, father of Jupiter and god of agriculture. The stargazers also observed comets with sparkling tails, and meteors or shooting stars apparently falling from the sky.

Since the invention of the telescope, three more planets have been discovered in our solar system: Uranus (1781), Neptune (1846), and Pluto (1930). [Editor's note: See the Overview section on Pluto for new information regarding Pluto's status as a "dwarf planet".] In addition, there are thousands of small bodies such as asteroids and comets. Most of the asteroids orbit in a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, while the home of comets lies far beyond the orbit of Pluto, in the Oort Cloud.

The four planets closest to the Sun - Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars - are called the terrestrial planets because they have solid rocky surfaces. The four large planets beyond the orbit of Mars - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune - are called gas giants. Tiny, distant, Pluto has a solid but icier surface than the terrestrial planets.

Nearly every planet - and some of the moons - has an atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere is primarily nitrogen and oxygen. Venus has a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide, with traces of poisonous gases such as sulfur dioxide. Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere is extremely thin. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are primarily hydrogen and helium. When Pluto is near the Sun, it has a thin atmosphere, but when Pluto travels to the outer regions of its orbit, the atmosphere freezes and collapses to the planet's surface. In that way, Pluto acts like a comet.

There are 136 known natural satellites (also called moons) in orbit around the various planets in our solar system, ranging from bodies larger than our own Moon to small pieces of debris. Many of these were discovered by planetary spacecraft. Some of these have moons have atmospheres (Saturn's Titan); some even have magnetic fields (Jupiter's Ganymede). Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. An ocean may lie beneath the frozen crust of Jupiter's moon Europa, while images of Jupiter's moon Ganymede show historical motion of icy crustal plates. Some planetary moons may actually be asteroids that were captured by a planet's gravity. The captured asteroids presently counted as moons may include Phobos and Deimos, several satellites of Jupiter, Saturn's Phoebe, many of Uranus' new satellites, and possibly Neptune's Nereid.

From 1610 to 1977, Saturn was thought to be the only planet with rings. We now know that Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have ring systems, although Saturn's is by far the largest. Particles in these ring systems range in size from dust to boulders to house sized, and may be rocky and/or icy.

Most of the planets also have magnetic fields which extend into space and form a magnetosphere around each planet. These magnetospheres rotate with the planet, sweeping charged particles with them. The Sun has a magnetic field, the heliosphere, which envelops our entire solar system.

Ancient astronomers believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe, and that the Sun and all the other stars revolved around the Earth. Copernicus proved that Earth and the other planets in our solar system orbit our Sun. Little by little, we are charting the Universe, and an obvious question arises: Are there other planets where life might exist? Only recently have astronomers had the tools to indirectly detect large planets around other stars in nearby solar systems.

Answer 7

a star with planets and debris orbiting around it....